Question

I am trying to create custom array indexed from 1 using subscript operator. Getting value works fine, but I have no clue, why assign using subscript operator doesn’t work.

class CEntry {
public:
  CKey key;
  CValue val;

  CEntry(const CKey& key, const CValue& val) {
    this->key = key;
    this->val = val;
  }

  CEntry& operator= (const CEntry& b) {
    *this = b;
    return *this;
  };
};

…

class EntriesArray {    
public:
    CEntry **entries;
    int length;

  EntriesArray(int length) {
    this->length = length;
    entries = new CEntry*[length];
    int i;
    for (i = 0; i < length + 1; i++) {
        entries[i] = NULL;
    }
  };

  CEntry& operator[] (const int index) {
      if (index < 1 || index > length) {
          throw ArrayOutOfBounds();
      }
      return *entries[index - 1];
  };

};

Constructs array this way

EntriesArray a(5);

This works

 a.entries[0] = new CEntry(CKey(1), CValue(1));
 cout << a[1].val.value << endl;

This doesn’t work

a[1] = new CEntry(CKey(1), CValue(1));

EDIT:

Using

CEntry *operator=( CEntry *orig)

it compiles okey, but gdb stops at

No memory available to program now: unsafe to call malloc warning: Unable to restore previously selected frame

with backtrace

Program received signal EXC_BAD_ACCESS, Could not access memory.
Reason: KERN_PROTECTION_FAILURE at address: 0x00007fff5f3ffff8
0x00000001000013c8 in CEntry::operator= (this=0x0, orig=0x1001008d0) at /Users/seal/Desktop/efa du2_pokus2/efa du2_pokus2/main.cpp:20
20  /Users/seal/Desktop/efa du2_pokus2/efa du2_pokus2/main.cpp: No such file or directory.
in /Users/seal/Desktop/efa du2_pokus2/efa du2_pokus2/main.cpp

Answer 1

You could try replacing

CEntry& operator[] (const int index) {
    if (index < 1 || index > length) {
        throw ArrayOutOfBounds();
    }
    return *entries[index - 1];
};

with

void Add(const int index, CEntry *pEntry) {
    if (index < 1 || index > length) {
        throw ArrayOutOfBounds();
    }
    entries[index - 1] = pEntry;
};

but since you are now storing references to objects allocated on the heap (with new) you will need a destructor ~EntriesArray() to delete them all.